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Ex-MARTA chief surfaces in Clayton

By Project Q Atlanta | Oct 8, 2008 | 4:10 PM

There is life after a Larry Craig-like bust for potty problems.

Ed Wall, the former MARTA board chair, was hired Tuesday to provide financial advice to Clayton County. Wall stepped aside as MARTA chair, though he remains on the board, after his arrest last year on allegations that he had sex with another man in a bathroom stall at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Hall has pleaded not guilty and the case is pending, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Wall, who attended the meeting but did not speak, said afterward that he had pleaded not guilty to the charges. “I suffered through it, but I got back up,” he said.

County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said the case is still pending and Wall is “innocent until proven guilty.”

The contract with Clayton taps Wall’s professional background as an investment banker.

Wall’s arrest on March 13, 2007 for allegedly having oral sex brought media attention to an ongoing sting by Atlanta police at the airport that netted more than 30 arrests.

The online buzz is about several of the bathrooms at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where police have indeed made many arrests in recent months related to men engaging in public sex. Late last year, airport personnel alerted the Atlanta Police Department that men were engaging in sexual acts in airport bathrooms, and one of the first men arrested told police officials about different websites men use to arrange sexual encounters, said Officer Darlene Harris, the gay liaison for APD.

“That was how [the police] found out about CraigsList.com, and from there —” Harris said, without finishing her sentence.

From there, police have arrested more than 30 men for allegedly engaging in sexual acts in the airport’s bathrooms. Most notably, MARTA board chair Ed Wall was arrested March 13 for allegedly having oral sex in an airport bathroom. Wall denied the charges, but temporarily stepped down from the MARTA board on March 16 in order “to be able to focus on proving my innocence against the charges made against me,” Wall said in a prepared statement.

The airport arrests have piqued the interest of Atlanta’s media, as news outlets reported not only on Wall’s arrests, but also on the apprehension of less notable figures like a Delta Air Line employee who was arrested March 21.